Australia's SkyAirWorld temporarily suspends operations

The charter and scheduled operator says in a statement it has "temporarily paused all flying operations in the short term".

"This difficult decision to rationalise operations was made to allow for continued re-engineering of the organisation," it says.

The airline's founder and CEO, David Charlton, says in the statement: "We remain committed to our customers, our staff and our suppliers and will work with all parties in the coming weeks as part of our restructuring process.

"This action, though regrettable, is necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of the organisation."

SkyAirWorld says it is still committed to the launch of services to Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands from Perth on 3 April using an Embraer 190. This is a charter contract the airline recently won from the Australian Government.

Earlier this month SkyAirWorld announced it had grounded its two Embraer ERJ-145s and one Embraer 170 and was negotiating with the lessor, GE Commercial Aviation Services (GECAS), for the early return of these.

But it said at the time that it planned to retain its other two aircraft, both E-190s on lease from GECAS.

A SkyAirWorld spokeswoman in its Brisbane office says the suspension of all services took effect from 22 February.

She was unable to say when flights will resume but confirms the suspension is for all flights including those SkyAirWorld operates on behalf of other carriers.

Prior to the suspension, SkyAirWorld had a scheduled service from Brisbane to Honiara, in the Solomon Islands, using an E-190. It was also operating an E-190 service from Port Moresby to Brisbane on behalf of Air Niugini.

An Air Niugini spokeswoman in Port Moresby says the carrier is now operating one of its Fokker 100s on the Port Moresby-Brisbane route.